Please, introduce yourself and your Studio…

I am Troy Hodgson, Art Director at Darcstudio. We are an architectural imagery studio based on the coast in Bournemouth, UK.
 
We work internationally and have created imagery for practices such as David Chipperfield, TWBTA and Peter Zumthor. Our imagery is characterised by a meticulous consideration of light, form and subtle colour.

How did you find your way into the field of Architecture?

I grew up in Halifax, an industrial town in the North of England. The skies are grey 250 days of the year, and the buildings are typically of stone, tarnished with a dark patina; a tattoo from the town’s industrial heritage. It is a modest and beautiful place, my love of architecture was born from this inky mood – visceral, rather than academic.  
 
I studied Architecture in the North, before working for various practices in London and moving to the New Forest in Dorset. I had always been more interested in drawing and the communication of architecture – rather than the process of design. This led me to set up Darcstudio in 2014.

What comes to your mind, when you think about your diploma project?

My final project at university was a secluded, coastal getaway inspired by JMW Turner’s painting – ‘Snowstorm’. Turner would apparently climb the masts of ships to experience weather at its most volatile. The project focused on architecture’s relationship with nature and context - a theme that continues to resonate through Darcstudio’s imagery.

What are your experiences founding DARCSTUDIO and working as an imagery Artisan?

I have been very lucky in working closely with some very well regarded architects who were also fantastic illustrators. Very early on I saw the powerful role that imagery and communication has in the realisation of architecture. I was reluctant to leave the comfort of everyday practice, but when offered the opportunity to focus fully on this, it felt completely natural. It was supposed to be a temporary break, but our work picked up traction and I found that I was quickly working with some of my favourite studios. We are now a studio of ten artists, comprising architects, photographers and painters.

How would you compare Bournemouth and NYC as locations for your studios? How is the context of this places influencing your work

Bournemouth is our home. We are 5 minutes walk to the beach and 10 minutes from the New Forest – it is a perfect location for thought and inspiration. We love the city (NYC or otherwise) and its culture – but out of the city, here in the forest and on the coast seasons are more pronounced and the experience of the elements is much more vivid and tangible. We can pick up on the small nuances which influence our work and how we interpret architecture in the wider context. 
One of our bigger projects in the US is working with TWBTA on material for the Obama Foundation in Chicago for Michelle and Barrack Obama. The time difference and logistics with this project has meant that a presence in NYC has been necessary to this point. 
The beauty of our studio however is that we are a very close team, all with differing skillsets. This diversity and close communication is essential to the quality of our imagery. Our focus for the future is to continue to cultivate this dynamic and work with studios that share our vision – rather than to expand for the sake of taking on more work. 

Creating Images to visualize the ideas of architects and designers seems to be a delicate thing. How important is the relationship and the communication between you and your clients?

This relationship is critical for the success of images because our best work is built on trust. Practices approach us because they want to see their project through our eyes, but in order to allow this to happen we have to be given license to explore and sometimes even abandon the approach they assumed they wanted. Like architecture itself, crafting imagery is a design process; explored properly it can lead to exciting and unexpected outcomes. 
It definitely helps that we have worked in practices and have design experience, we understand the process.  

What does your desk/working space look like? 

Messy. 

Your master of architecture?

A Book: The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses by J. Pallasmaa

A Person: Carlo Scarpa

A Building: Met Breuer 

How do you communicate / present Architecture?

My appreciation of architecture and role within architecture is a paradox. 
For me, architecture can (and should) only be truly understood in its experience. For that reason we do not strive for realism or attempt to fool anyone into thinking our images are photographs. On the contrary, our role is simply to try understand that emotional response which the experience of architecture can trigger, and craft images which can begin to fire the imagination towards it. 

As a result, our work is rich in atmosphere but purposefully ambiguous; like a memory.  

What has to change in the Architecture Industry? How do you imagine the future?

In terms of imagery, the barrier for entry is much lower than it was and imagery is becoming easier to produce. A lot of practices will soon have the tools to produce in-house, should they wish. That said, what we do is an art; we all have cameras, but that doesn’t make us all good photographers, similarly - the tools that we have will be common, but it is how we see that makes us unique.

Website: darcstudio.co.uk

Instagram: @darcstudio

Facebook: @darcstudiouk

Images: © Darcstudio

Interview: kntxtr, 03/2019

Instagram
Facebook
Newsletter

Imprint
Data Protection Policy